The Rays announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Braden Bristo from Triple-A Durham and optioned top pitching prospect Taj Bradley, who made his MLB debut against the Red Sox, back to Durham in his place. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, Tampa Bay transferred righty Shane Baz from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Baz is recovering from September’s Tommy John surgery and could miss the entire season, so his move to the 60-day IL was a formality.
If the 28-year-old Bristo makes it into a game with the Rays, it’ll mark his big league debut after an eight-year minor league journey. The longtime Yankees farmhand was New York’s 23rd-round selection back in 2016, and he spent the next seven years climbing the ranks in their system. Bristo topped out at Triple-A in 2021-22 and never made it to the Majors with the Yanks, however. He elected minor league free agency at the end of the 2022 campaign.
In five innings with the Rays’ top affiliate in Durham thus far, Bristo has yielded three runs on six hits with an appealing 7-to-1 K/BB ratio. He’s had little problem missing bats in parts of three Triple-A seasons overall, fanning a strong 27.3% of his opponents. His 12.8% walk rate in Triple-A, however, is far more concerning. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen has previously noted Bristo’s high-spin curveball and a heater that can reach the mid-90s in short stints, but command has been an issue for Bristo in the upper minors — at least until this season. It’s a tiny sample, of course, but Bristo has walked just one of his 22 opponents so far.
For now, Bristo will give the Rays an extra arm in the ’pen. Tampa Bay used Jalen Beeks as an opener in a bullpen game on Monday, and their ’pen has covered a combined eight innings in the two games since.
Bradley won’t be able to return to the Majors for at least 10 days unless he’s recalled in place of someone who’s being placed on the injured list. Barring that scenario, yesterday’s MLB debut will go down as a spot start for Bradley, who ranks among the sport’s top 50 overall prospects. He tossed five innings against Boston and allowed three runs on five hits and a walk with eight strikeouts.
Bristo should just be up for a cup of coffee
Does he have time to grab a pastry too?
And a DFA
Why not just keep Taj up as a starter instead of sending him back down for another pitcher
Rays doing Rays things
Holding down service time.
Or they want a bullpen arm and deem that more important than an extra starter for the next couple of weeks. They taxed their bullpen this week and need some rested arms in the pen.
You are correct. Bradley could be back after the 10 days while getting another start in AAA. Glasnow isn’t far away anyway and Eflins stint is expected to be short. An embarrassment of riches.
Bradley won’t be able to pitch for a few days and the Rays are swapping him out for a pitcher who will. It’s pretty much standard operating procedure for MLB.
“Holding down service time” They say ignorance is bliss; is this true?
The rays have used 9 relievers in last 2 games. Further taxing bullpen is a day game today before weekend series. Fresh arms is more of a need as other experienced starters can come up of need be next week. They way they have used Taj so far seems to show they will limit his innings early on anyway so that he gas bullets available for the 2nd half of season.
Because Bradley can’t pitch for another 4 days. This way, they can bring up a reliever that can be useful for the next few days.
As stated in the article, the bullpen has put in some serious work as of late & can use a fresh arm in the ‘pen.
I remember the hype around the Archer trade for Glasnow, Baz, and Meadows….fast forward years later…its unreal how injury plagued those three have been in their careers.
Four. Archer hasn’t been a picture of health.
Good. Guy pitched terribly. 8 Ks in 5 innings and an ERA+ of 80? I was expecting more like a perfect game with 27Ks. Get back to the minors and season yourself up.
/s
They’re 12-0 now.
PSA to anyone in charge that reads these comments; you have browser hijacking ads running on your pages. Might want to fix that.
After just seeing Springs come out of his start, Taj might be back up sooner than we thought:/
Didn’t take long for Bristo to get into his first MLB game! Very solid debut
The Rays pen is gassed. They nearly blew their big lead. They need a starter or two to go deep.
The Ray’s churn out quality pitchers like an assembly line.